Mark Divver: P-Bruins’ Hanson proud of dad’s Slap Shot’ fame

Thursday

Christian Hanson has never put on the foil before a game. He most definitely does not bring his toys with him.

Christian Hanson has never put on the foil before a game. He most definitely does not bring his toys with him.

But, if you ask him, there’s a good chance that he’d be happy to yell out, “Gimme a grape or an orange and none of that stinkin’ root beer” or “Hey, ya think they show ‘Speed Racer’ here?”

For the Providence Bruins center, there simply is no escaping “Slap Shot,” the riotous 1977 movie in which his father, Dave, played one of the Hanson brothers, three goons in glasses who cut a path of comic destruction through the Federal League while skating for the fictional Charlestown Chiefs.

Christian wouldn’t have it any other way. A friendly 26-year-old who graduated from Notre Dame with a degree in finance, he never tires of talking about the movie and his dad’s part in it.

“Not at all. I love it. It’s something I’m definitely proud of. I think it’s the greatest sports movie of all time. To see a movie that was made 35 years ago still have an impact on people today is unbelievable,” he said.

Dave Hanson was a rough-and-tumble defenseman who played 33 National Hockey League games and 103 World Hockey Association games in the 1970s and ’80s. He spent most of his career in the minors, including 27 games (2 goals, 98 penalty minutes) with the Rhode Island Reds in 1976-77.

While compiling over 200 penalty minutes in a season eight times during his career, Dave Hanson lived some of the incidents that were later reenacted — and exaggerated — in “Slap Shot.”

At 6-foot-4 and 230 pounds, Christian is considerably bigger than his father, and nothing like him as a player.

P-Bruins coach Bruce “Butch” Cassidy calls him “a cerebral player.”

“Hockey’s a different game now,” said Hanson. “Growing up, I knew the type of player my dad was. He always told me that as the game develops, there’s a smaller and smaller role for the type of player that he was.

“So, if you’re able to be a skilled forward as well as have a physical presence out there — not dropping the gloves all the time but knowing that you can do it and you will defend yourself and your teammates — that will get you a lot farther in the game than somebody in the role that he played.”

Born in Glens Falls, N.Y., and raised in Pittsburgh, Hanson was not drafted, but he signed a big free-agent ticket with Toronto as soon as he finished his senior season at Notre Dame in 2009. A week later, he scored his first NHL goal against New Jersey’s Martin Brodeur.

Hanson bounced between the Leafs and AHL Marlies for a couple of seasons, then signed with Washington. After spending last year with their farm team in Hershey, he signed a one-year deal with Boston in July.

“I think we were devoid of a little bit of size, at center in particular,” said Don Sweeney, the Bruins assistant general manager. “He has NHL experience. He’s been with a couple of organizations. He should be hungry to continue to fight his way back up there and see if he can reestablish himself at the NHL level.”

Unlike the Hanson brothers — who played with their toy race cars when they weren’t at the rink — Christian likes to spend his spare time at the movies.

“I love movies. It’s just something I like to do. Some guys like to play video games, other guys like to sleep. I like movies. It’s a way to get away, escape reality for a little bit and just kind of get lost in the movies for two hours. You really don’t have to talk to anybody, you can just sit back and relax,” said Hanson.

Accompanied by teammates Dave Warsofsky and Craig Cunningham, he’s become a regular at the Showcase Cinema at Providence Place. Hanson says that he has seen just about every movie in town over the last month. Nothing that compares to “Slap Shot,” though.

The fact that the Hanson brothers — Dave Hanson, Jeff and Steve Carlson — still take their hockey schtick on the road all over the United States and Canada to raise money for charity speaks to the enduring popularity of the movie, which starred Paul Newman as the coach of the Chiefs, a failing minor-league team.

“My dad still goes on tour all the time,” Christian Hanson said. “The fact that he’s still able to do that — and over the years they’ve raised tens of millions of dollars for other people — is just fantastic.”

The fact is, “Slap Shot” is a part of the conversation everywhere that hockey fans and players gather, with familiar scenes and lines from the movie repeated and enjoyed over and over.

“Even if Hanson wasn’t in the dressing room, it would be quoted. Everybody here has probably seen it 20 or 25 times,” said Chris Bourque of the P-Bruins.

“There’s always another line or something you notice that you’d overlooked before. That’s the beauty of “Slap Shot.” It doesn’t get old,” said Sweeney.

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